The Experimental Research On The Phonological Processing Disorder Of Chinese Adult Stutterers

Objective: The experimental research was conducted for answering questions if Chinese adult stutteres have some disorders of phonological encoding, and if this disorders of phonological encoding have some effects on their speech production, and if cognitive stress/loads imposed by phonologic/orthographic incongruency influence phonological processing. Methods: The experiments were consisted of two different tasks. The aims in experiment 1 are to investigate whether Chinese adult stutterers have disorders of phonological processing, whether cognitive stress imposed by phonologic/orthographic incongruency influence phonological encoding. A rhyming judgment task of visually presented character pairs in experiment 1 is used, by which one judge whether a rhyme between a prime-target pair is the same or not. The experimental materials consist of 244 prime-target character pairs which look similar and rhyming (e.g., 坡—波) or look similar but do not rhyming (e.g., 披—波),or do not look similar but rhyming(e.g., 莫—波),or do not look similar and do not rhyming (e.g., 兽—波).Subjects are 23 Chinese adult stutterers and 22 fluent normal controls. Experiment 2 aims at investigating effects of phonological processing on speech production of Chinese adult stutterers, and effects of cognitive loads imposed by phonologic /orthographic incongruency on the speech production.In experiment 2, a naming task with a target's rhyme primed was used. The experimental materials are the same as those used in experiment 1. Subjects are 20 Chinese adult stutterers and 20 fluent normal controls. Results: Experiment 1, the stutterers show slower reaction time than controls, and an interaction between rhyme and subject types is significant. Those imply disorders of phonological processing in stutterers. Experiment 2, the stutterers show also slower reaction time than controls, and an interaction between rhyme and subject types is significant, but an interaction between subject types and rhyme and orthograph is significant in error rate, suggesting that stutterers' disorders of phonological encoding could influenced their speech production, and that the cognitive loads...